LIMA, Peru\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook the Andes region of Peru, killing at least six people, injuring more than 30 and displacing 300, authorities said Sunday.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake struck at 9:24 p.m. Saturday local time, with its epicenter 1.24 miles west-southwest of the city of Sicaya, in Huancayo province. The quake took place at a depth of 6.21 miles.<\/p>\n
Peru\u2019s National Civil Defense Institute said in a statement that the number of people missing is still unknown. Several buildings collapsed or suffered structural damage, including the historic Santiago de Le\u00f3n church and former convent in Chongos Bajo, which was built in 1565 and designated as national heritage site as an \u201carchitectural gem\u201d of the era. <\/p>\n
Luis V\u00e1squez, head of the local civil defense office, told journalists that the use of rustic adobe materials in construction in the area \u201chas contributed to the greater impact and damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earthquakes are frequent in Peru, which is located on the Pacific \u201cRing of Fire,\u201d as is California. <\/p>\n
Images broadcast by local media captured the anguish of victims\u2019 relatives in one of the hardest-hit areas, the agricultural region of Chongo Bajo, where residents huddled under blankets outside severely damaged homes. Animals were also seen under the rubble.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy home has been destroyed,\u201d Hermenegilda Guamalato told a local radio station as she sought a place to stay with her three children in the neighboring province of Huayucachi.<\/p>\n
In 2007, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the province of Pisco in the Ica region, leaving nearly 600 people dead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIMA, Peru\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook the Andes region of Peru, killing at least six people, injuring more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[162374,162377,162378,162376,2949,162375,8568,48,52,51,47,50,49,4465,2663,162379,592,51876,8952,7248,2601],"class_list":["post-404788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-andes-region","tag-anguish","tag-chongo-bajo","tag-convent","tag-earthquake","tag-huancayo-province","tag-image","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-magnitude","tag-mile","tag-national-civil-defense-institute","tag-people","tag-peru","tag-quake","tag-relative","tag-victim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}